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Wednesday, 26 June 2013

23 June : Swami Vive Kananda Here on a Mission

ॐ
वीरेश्वराय विद्महे
विवेकानन्दाय धीमहि । तन्नो
वीर: प्रचोदयात् ।

One of the Delegates to the Parliament of Religions at the World's
Fair Visits Minneapolis - enthusiastic over the Beauties of
Minnehaha - a Benefactor to the Masses of India - projects for the
Betterment of the Condition of His People - an Interesting Talk to
The Tribune - lecture for the Peripatetic Literary Club.

A foreigner of dignified position, a Brahmin priest, Swami Vive
Kananda, is a guest in the city for a few days. He was one of the
delegates to the Parliament of Religions at Chicago and arrived in
Minneapolis Tuesday [November 21] to remain over Friday, when he
is to give a lecture in the evening at the First Unitarian Church
for the Peripatetic Literary Club. He is stopping with friends
during his stay.

Vive Kananda is an oriental in everything but dress, and this he
will be tomorrow evening when he will give his lecture in the
native priest costume. He is a man of little more than 30 years,
with dark brown skin, coal black hair and jetty eyes. He is of
medium height, compactly built, and with a highly intelligent cast
of countenance from which beams kindliness and interest when in
pleasant conversation. When Vive Kananda was found by THE TRIBUNE
yesterday afternoon he was smoking a cigar, and he blew the smoke
in grateful enjoyment far above his head. He had just returned
from a trip to Minnehaha, and his frequent lapses into silence
were interrupted by the emphatic expression "Hiawatha." He had
read Long -fellow's poem far over in his Indian home in Calcutta,
and he was delighted to have visited the scene of the legend.
Kananda is not merely a casual visitor to this part of the world.
He comes with a purpose strong, deep and earnest. He comes in the
guise of a benefactor to the masses of India, the lower class
people who dwell in ignorance and poverty.

In his native land he is one of thousands of mendicant monks who
travel from village to town preaching the Brahmin faith. As a
priest Vive Kananda is above all caste, and, in his own words, "I
am my own man. I have no church. I bow to no one." His official
title, "Swami" a word of Sanscrit origin, designates his position
as "master," or as rabbi in other nations. He uses the English
language with happy ease, and his speech is slow and dignified,
while he speaks in low musical tones. His mission to this country
is to obtain funds by his lectures, to return to India and
establish an institute of learning for the ignorant masses who
swarm through the country. In this errand he is an evangel, for no
one has ever yet endeavored to better the condition of the lower
classes.

Told by Vive Kananda, the story of his mission and his, coming to
America is pleasing to hear. "I am, as you know " he says, "a
monk, who with thousands of others travels about the land speaking
to the people. As I traveled I was called to do a work that no one
else had even attempted. I was called to journey into the new
world. The people of India are a depressed race, and there are two
reasons for their condition their ignorance and political
oppression. They can never relieve themselves of the second
calamity until they have overcome the first. So I undertake a
pilgrimage to interest distant people, and when the time comes I
shall return to establish a school for the masses."

Pressed further for details of his plan and for the location of
his school, Kananda smiled. "It is in my brain yet, and I do not
know where it will be," he said.

"I shall have thousands of workers to help me in the cause. India
has her universities, and one of them contains 20,000 students,
but it is only the higher class people who reap their benefit. The
poor people work in the fields and labor, but education and the
practical things of life are not their reward. I wish to start a
school, and this is how I shall do it. These brother missionaries
who are traveling about the country I shall call upon them and
they will help. When the people gather in the fields at night and
sit smoking after the toil of the day, a missionary will join
their number, and little by little they will learn some of the
things it will be good for them to know. In this way my school
will be started. Then I shall have a training college, where sons
of farmers will learn to be missionaries, and soon they, too,
shall teach and by and by there will be a group of schools and
colleges."

Vive Kananda grew more earnest as he dwelt upon his plans, and
when accused in a friendly way of being an apostle in his work, he
replied: "Apostle or no apostle, I do the work and the people of
my land will be aided to help themselves." Kananda turns to
America when he cannot and will not look to England, and his stay
in this country will be regulated by the sympathy with which he
meets.

His lecture tomorrow evening will be on the subject, "Brahminism,"
and while the audience will be limited to members and friends of
the Peripatetics, he will probably remain in the city for a few
days, since both Rev. Mr. Simpsons and Dr. Tuttle are desirous
that the people of their churches shall hear him speak. In his
travels through this country he conforms himself to the customs of
the people with whom he is, and at table, in dress or conversation
he is an agreeable and interesting person to meet. With one phase
of missionary work as conducted in foreign lands he is not in
sympathy, since he believes that the men who are most frequently
employed as foreign missionaries are not always the worthiest for
the position and place they are called upon to fill.

From
Minneapolis Tribune, Thursday, November 23, 1893 A PRIEST OF
BRAHMA [Swami Vivekananda in The West - New Discoveries,
Vol-1, p489]

Todays-Special 23-June
in Swami Vivekananda Life

23rd June, 1894
: To The Maharaja of Mysore - from -CHICAGONo other nation
applies so much machinery in their everyday work as do the
people of this country.....
Nowhere on earth have women so many privileges as in America
...
No country on earth has so many laws, and in no country are
they so little regarded...
...
My noble Prince, this life is short, the vanities of the
world are transient, but
they alone live who live for others, the rest are more
dead than alive. One such high, noble-minded, and royal
son of India as your Highness can do much towards raising
India on her feet again and thus leave a name to posterity
which shall be worshipped.

23 June 1900 :
To Mary Hale on
I am determined to get rid of all sentimentalism, and
emotionalism, and hang me if you ever find me emotional. I
am the Advaitist; our goal is knowledge — no feelings, no
love, as all that belongs to matter and superstition and
bondage. I am only existence and knowledge.
.... "Mother" looks after me. She is bringing me fast out
of the hell of emotionalism, and bringing me into the
light of pure reason.